Community Highlights

That is the first full night's imaging I have managed in a long long time.
Evening started of with wall to wall cloud which persisted late into the night.
After it finally cleared the rest of the night was stunning.
 
Hopefully it will be clear again tonight so I can get some OIII and SII
 
GT 81
Atik 414 EX
 
35 subs at 600 seconds in HA
Captured and stacked in Maxim
Polished up in PS 6
 
Click on the image a couple of times to get to full res.
 

Alec shared his attempt on NGC7000, which was cut short due to clouds, managing just 10 minutes of data. The image is stunning considering just how little data was captured!

TS71 QSI RGB 24 x 30 secs each filter.
 

Did this small test with the focuser I've just added and in process a new plugin on affinity photo. 

https://flic.kr/p/2aYienC
Another one from my holiday in Cornwall. I managed to get the first view of the Milky Way just as the crescent moon was setting. Yes, that's the Moon, not the Sun hitting the horizon. Taken from Widemouth Beach, Cornwall with my Star Adventurer mount and modded Canon 450d🔭😉

If the weather is good then we'll have the chance to observe/image, otherwise we'll meet up for a social. 🙂

Couldn't resist the opportunity to grab some snaps from my holiday let in Cornwall - fantastic clear skies last night - think I'll be moving the shed doen here 

Hi All,
 
Not posted anything for some time. Light nights, holidays, QHY8L broken, pondering what changes need to be made for the new season of astrophotography......etc.
 
So my QHY8L died and although I stripped it down, there was nothing obviously wrong - I suspected the dodgey DIN connector, but it wasn't that. So off it went, via Bern at Modern Astronomy to China to be repaired. It's been fixed I understand and should be back soon.
 
I was hoping to have more time/success with my twin scope set up, so I've been making some improvements. I've added a 4 port USB 3 hub and cable to replace 4 separate USB 2 cables. The theory being USB 3 cables should be better quality. First impressions look good, but time will tell.
 
Also purchased a new camera, a second hand Atik 383L+ as this will match the sensor in the Moravian G2-8200, which the QHY8L didn't when I used that. That should simplify the processing of the images and hopefully give a better result. To this I've added a ZWO mini EFW.
 
The set up will be:
 
Moravian -  LRGB filters
Atik - L, Ha, Hb Oiii, Sii filters
 
This should allow me to maximise my imaging time.
 
Might swap the filters around a bit, might make sense to split up the RGB to allow LRGB imaging only to be set up.
 
Here's the new set up:

 
Looking forward to some clear skies.
 
Dave

102 7D DSLR
 

I've imaged the part of the Veil, North America and Sadr regions previously, but this time I'd wanted to catch them widefield, all in the same frame.
 
Modded Canon 1100D, 50mm STM @ F/4
Unguided SWSA
 
40x 300s Lights
34 Darks
60 Flats
60 Bias
 

 
Regards,
 
Kev
 

Bit of an odd ball this one.
Came across this whilst searching for a target to do at Kelling.
I decided to do it due to the interesting star formations around it.
 
GT 81
Atik 414 EX
 
21 x 600 second subs in HA
Captured and stacked in Maxim
Slight polish in PS 6.
 
Click on image a couple of times for full res.
 
 

Click through for full res better looking image
 

 

 

Taken with the usual kit.
Still really quiet.
 
Mono.
 

 
False colour added in PS 6.
 

A composite of images of meteors over 11-16 August 2018, time of the Perseid meteor shower. The video camera faces SW from Loughborough, UK. There were a few more meteors than those shown but I removed them to avoid showing coincident recording of aircraft trails, which distracted from the meteor paths being taken.
 
 

I found this on Reddit recently, thought I would share. I'm using it as my desktop wallpaper. Click it for the full version. 🙂 
 

Lunt 60mm  D/S Blackfly cam (as I had resoldered the power cable)
 

 
 

My next project - NGC281 - 3hrs of Ha processed in Pixinsight and PS CC. Next stop, some RGB

TS 71 QSI 690 O111 filter 
so far 69 x 1800
 

I thought it was time to bag another asteroid.  176-Iduna is currently in Aquila, which is an easy constellation to find at this time.  The asteroid is a few degrees to the right of the bright star Altair.  It was a little more challenging  around 13th magnitude.  I found it with a DSLR camera and 70-300 mm zoom lens set at 300 mm, with a 15s exposure at ISO 6400. I'm getting close to the capability of recording Pluto with the same equipment. The camera was mounted on a Star Adventurer mount driven at sidereal rate.  A series of images were taken over about an hour, which might be enough to show movement if zoomed in but I've not checked to see how much it moves.  I'll have to wait and see when I get round to stacking or video making.  It was interesting that a very faint satellite or space junk wandered by and pointed to where Iduna was, but I didn't know if it would transit it.  Line of sight, looks like it possibly would have been a close encounter but I didn't get that shot because of the delay I made to trigger the shutter.  23:35 UT, 19 Aug 2018.
 
Main belt asteroid.
Size ~121 km.
Orbital period 5.69 years.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The new 2" TS 32mm 70 degree illuminated reticle eyepiece is massive, and a very nice looking eyepiece in its own right. Big eyelens and 24mm eye relief, it has a cross in just the central 50% of the FOV which can be focused by twisting the eyepiece. This configuration gives a touch under a 6 degree true field...
 

 
TS reticle eyepiece in Baader 2" RACI prism diagonal on 80mm finder...

 
The Rodenstock Giant is a bit much though. 😁

This clip was done by same person as Timelapse of the universe and also worked on orgins the journey of humankind on National Geographic only 2minutes very slick 
 

I captured another 2 hours of data, flats, bias and darks, so the image is much better. 4h total exposure with Canon 1200D and Astronomik CLS clip in filter

I have used Meteoblue for a while now for my weather and rain radar. They have an astronomical seeing page too, you have to register (free, just email and a password) and by signing up you can gain access to it and they claim a 70% success rate at forecasting in advance. I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes.
 

Here's my Milky Way pano from last week's pre-Perseids meet.
 
Consisting of 2 rows and 7 overlapping panels with my 14mm Samyang, ISO 6400, 20s subs. Some of them were stacked, others were not.
 
All pieced together with DSS, Microsoft ICE, Startools, GIMP and Photoshop.
 

 
Regards
 
Kev

Couldn't resist. Taken with the Celestron C8; f6.3 reducer; 1/320 second on ISO 100 using a Canon 80D and processed in PS CC. some passing high cloud just adds some mood!